It is certainly fascinating news that the folks at Toscana Country Club are completing the back nine of that North Course over the next year, giving the Indian Wells private country club a complete 36 holes.

It was interesting that as Toscana officials talked about their new eight holes (yes, they only need eight holes to complete the 18 on the North Course), the Saxony Group real estate development company announced plans for an 18-hole golf course to be included in its vision of a new development in the Indio Hills area north of Interstate 10 in the eastern valley.

If you toss in the original plan for La Entrada, another proposed development in the eastern valley that included two 18-hole courses, and you might get the idea that there is an appetite for more golf courses to be added to the already golf-rich Coachella Valley.

But that might not be a true picture of the golf landscape in the desert these days.

Consider that the eight holes being built at Toscana are the first golf holes to be built in the Coachella Valley in three years. Those last holes were the final nine holes of the par-3 North Course at Shadow Hills Golf Club in Indio. Those holes opened in February of 2012, and they were the first holes built since the first nine holes on that course that opened in 2010.

And remember that the North Course of Shadow Hills had already been planned and already had nine holes open when the final nine holes were built. At Toscana, the plan from the time the club opened in 2003 was to have 36 holes designed by Jack Nicklaus. It's just that 27 holes (OK, 28 really) were built, with an eye on completing the North Course 18 when it made sense for members and real estate sales.

Future developments must decide, is the desert already at a saturation point for courses with 123 (depending on how you count them), and is the decline in national golf participation a concern?

Water, which has become a part of practically every conversation about pretty much anything in California these days, will certainly play a role, too. And since real estate sales have been at the heart of golf course development in the desert for more than 60 years, you have to factor in just what kind of demand there is for housing in the Coachella Valley. Without real estate sales, the golf courses make no financial sense.

This isn't to say that there is no demand for new courses. Every course, especially those in the desert, love the challenge of playing a new course. And while other areas of the courses are seeing golf slip as a recreation, the desert still attracts permanent and part-time residents and tourists who love the game.

But that might not be enough to get new courses built in the desert. For now, the plans for new courses might stay just plans. But a plan can turn into a reality, and maybe four or five years down the road, we'll see the desert get more new golf holes.

Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer. Reach him at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com or (760) 778-4633. Follow him on Twitter at @Larry_Bohannan.